Barcoding of European Spiders

The following projects concern barcoding activities of European spiders:

• Spiders of Bulgaria [SPIEU]. Arachnologists of the Institute of Zolology (now Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem research) at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences organised the first collections on the spiders for barcoding in 2009. After three years, in 2012, the project contained 1420 barcoded specimens of 269 species, 129 genera, and 28 families. Involved people: Christo Deltshev, Maria Naumova, Stoyan Lazarov, Gergin Blagoev.

 

• Spiders of Turkey [TURAR] (from the European and Asian parts). The project started in 2010. By 2012, the project contained 1985 barcoded specimens of 248 species, 166 genera, and 45 families. Involved people:  Kadir Boğaç Kunt, Yuri Marusik, Gergin Blagoev.

 

• Spiders of Russia [SPIRU] (from the European and Asian parts). The project started in 2010. In this project, so far about 1894 specimens of 263 species, 139 genera, and 17 families were barcoded. Involved institutions: Institute for Biological Problems of the North, Russian Academy of Sciences and the Zoological Museum of the University of Turku, Finland. Involved people: Yuri Marusik, Seppo Koponen, Mikhail M. Omelko, Alexander A. Fomichev, Gergin Blagoev.

 

• In a project on Alpine spiders, the Institute of Biology, Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia, started in 2011 a barcoding project, aiming at collecting, expertly identifying, storing on ice and providing DNA barcodes for a quarter of the spider fauna shared between Slovenia and Switzerland, that is roughly 275 species. Involved people: Matjaž Kuntner, Christian Kropf, Matjaž Gregorič, Klemen Čandek. http://ezlab.zrc-sazu.si/

 

• Barcoding Flora and Fauna of the Netherlands. Naturalis, The Natural History Museum Leiden, The Netherlands, attempts to DNA barcode up to four representatives of every Dutch spider species, ideally one from each of four quadrants of the country. Involved people: Peter van Helsdingen, Jeremy Miller. http://science.naturalis.nl/dnabarcoding

 

• German Barcode of Life (GBOL). In Germany, a network of several museums and other institutions (speaker: Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum A. Koenig, ZFMK, Bonn) are running the German Barcode of Life campaign, which is financed from 2012 to 2018 by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The project focuses on multicellular organisms, and includes spiders. People involved in spider barcoding: Jonas Astrin (ZFMK), Joachim Holstein (SMN-Stuttgart), Hubert Höfer (SMN-Karlsruhe), Jörg Spelda (ZS-München), Björn Rulik (ZFMK). https://www.bolgermany.de/

 

• In Switzerland, a DNA barcoding project is financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation, it runs 2012-15 and intends to use barcodes to investigate taxonomic problems of spiders. Involved people: Christian Kropf, Wolfgang Nentwig, Liana Lasut.
  Swiss Barcode of Life (SwissBOL) also partly supports the barcoding of Swiss spiders (2013/2014).

 

• The Iberian spiders barcoding initiative is a three-year project funded by the Spanish National Parks Autonomous Agency, starting in 2013. The project aims to investigate diversity and biogeographical patterns of spider communities in Spanish national parks by reconciling semi-quantitative bioinventories and DNA barcoding tools. In this first stage, the project will mostly focus in spider communities of white-oak forests. Involved people: Miquel Arnedo and Carles Ribera (UB-IRBio), Jordi Moya-Laraño (EEZA), Alberto Jimenez-Valverde (MNCN) and Pedro Cardoso (UH-FMNH). http://www.marnedo.net/.

 

• Barcoding the Fauna Bavarica. Since 2010, the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, Munich, Germany, is barcoding all 34.000 animal species of Bavaria. http://www.faunabavarica.de/

 

• ABOL – Austrian Barcode Of Life (ABOL-BIO-PLANBAR). The project runs from 2018 to 2021. It is a cooperation of the ÖKOTEAM – Institute of Animal Ecology and Landscape Planning with the Institute of Biology of the Karl-Franzens-University of Graz, the Universalmuseum Joanneum and the Natural History Museum of Vienna, financed by the BMVIT via FFG. The total number of samples for spiders (Araneae) is 1000. Within arachnids we are dealing with spiders, harvestmen and scorpions. Involved people: Christian Komposch (arachnids); Werner Holzinger, Stephan Koblmüller and Wolfgang Paill (Project-coordinators). https://www.abol.ac.at/project/bio-planbar/